H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. has been named to be Attorney General Kathleen Kane's special deputy charged with looking into the Sandusky probe.Submitted photo

They mean that in the best sense possible.

"He cares about doing a good job,” said Neil Barofsky, a law professor at New York University who hired Moulton to work alongside him in the inspector general’s office auditing the Obama Administration’s bank bailout program in 2010-11.

“If her goal is to say to the citizens that she wants this investigation to be balanced, fair and completely on the up and up, she couldn’t have made a better choice,” agreed Daniel Richman, an on-again, off-again colleague of Moulton’s, who now teaches at Columbia University’s Law School.

“He’s an enormously smart guy with, I think, a terrific sense of balance” who will do his best at looking at the decisions that were made from all contexts, Richman added.

But in a statement released by Widener Law School, where Moulton works as an associate professor, he said: "I have always been drawn to public service and this project is one of real importance for both the Office of the Attorney General and the people of Pennsylvania."

For the new attorney general, however, it’s also the first step in keeping an important campaign promise that many political analysts believe propelled her into the office last year.

The pledge, in essence, is to conduct a thorough review of the 33-month Sandusky probe to answer lingering questions about why Sandusky wasn't arrested after the first credible witness came forward; why the case was turned over to a grand jury; and whether external factors like then-Attorney General Tom Corbett’s gubernatorial aspirations influenced its pacing.

For Moulton, the appointment is the latest visit to the frying pan of hard public sector assignments. The 54-year-old Oreland, Montgomery County attorney has, in earlier career chapters:

* Led a politically-fraught review of a failed federal Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms raid on the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas for the ATF's overseer, the U.S. Treasury.

* Helped oversee a major municipal corruption probe in Philadelphia as first assistant to Pat Meehan, then-U.S. Attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania. Meehan, a Republican, now represents the Philadelphia suburbs in Congress.

* Helped ensure that dollars spent in the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program were put to appropriate uses for taxpayers.

Moulton's own political party affiliation was not immediately available today.

Federal campaign finance records show he gave nearly $1,000 combined to President Barack Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012, along with another $250 contribution to then-Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in 2008. Specter later switched to the Democratic Party.

Moulton was on the Widener faculty at those times, and there are no records of contributions to state-level races.

But colleagues reached Monday said he has been unfailingly blind to politics in his work as a prosecutor or investigator, even in the most hot-button of issues.

"He prides himself on his ability to keep his head down and go where the facts lead, and to leave the political swirling to the newspapers," said Richman, who worked with Moulton on the Branch Davidian report, which led to significant changes at ATF.

"He is exceptionally skilled as an attorney and in his judgment, and I think his integrity is top-rate," added Meehan, who said he was not contacted by Kane during her vetting process.

Corbett, who took up the Sandusky probe as Attorney General in early 2009 and then handed it over to his hand-picked successor Linda Kelly after winning the governor's election in 2010, has strenuously defended his role in the case.

Sandusky was ultimately charged with sexually molesting 10 boys in November 2011, and he was convicted on 45 of 48 total counts last year. He is now serving a 30-year minimum prison term.

Corbett and his staffers who worked the case have said that result vindicates a methodical strategy designed to prove a continuous course of conduct by the once-beloved former Penn State football assistant.

"He will be happy to speak with him (Moulton) at any time," Kevin Harley, Corbett's press secretary, said when asked about the appointment tonight. "We expect that it will be a professional review."

Sandusky's appelate attorney Norris Gelman, said he had no comment on Moulton's selection.

Kane's office said Moulton is being paid $72 per hour for his services, which will co-exist for the time being with his spring semester teaching load at Widener. No timeline has been set for completion of the Moulton's report.

At the outset, Moulton will have to rely in large part on a paper trail and the cooperation and good will of the Sandusky investigators, many of whom have since retired or left the Attorney General's office during the transition.

Moulton, as a special deputy, could seek grand jury powers, but only if he is alleging a crime was committed and he can show he needs to be able to compel testimony to be able investigate that allegation thoroughly.

Kane's press secretary Ellen Mellody said there are no plans to do that at this time.

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